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Natural selection was Darwin’s key insight, the idea that truly made him famous. The idea of evolution existed before he was born, but there was no credible mechanism. Darwin, and Alfred Russell Wallace, uncovered that mechanism. Natural selection has been defined as “the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.” Before…
Read More »I’ve already written about the economic and environmental costs of failing to deal with climate change. Both phenomena are well understood and the forecast grows increasingly disheartening. However, there’s a third story, a moral one. I’m not talking about the morality of increased incidence of famine, drought, and disease; those…
Read More »Paul Krugman in his NYT column today tells why we are not getting serious energy policy legislation out of Washington, D.C. Krugman lines up with Andrew H., if you’ve been reading this blog regularly. Read his essay here. Krugman’s colleague Ross Douthat takes a different view on the consequences in his…
Read More »In today’s Globe Rob Gavin (formerly a Lowell SUN staffer) gives us an account of the many projects the UMass system is undertaking across its five campuses. He calls them “another sign of its growing impact on regional economies.” The projects bring federal and private dollars into the Commonwealth and importantly it…
Read More »One of the biggest questions in studying modern (post 1600) global history is why it was Europe and not China or India that became the dominant world power. From a purely statistical standpoint, the best money was on China up until even as late as 1800; it simply had greater…
Read More »Lowell is in the Universe. This stuff just blows my mind. The latest cosmic discovery will make anyone pause and consider his or her own place in space. A little more humility would go a long way among the inhabitants of Earth. Makes you wonder why it took so long to…
Read More »Timothy Egan checks in with his latest NYTimes column, this one about heat waves, extreme weather, the reality of global warming, and the desperate need for smarter federal policies on energy. Read his views here, and consider subscribing to the NYT if you appreciate the writing. My household gets the…
Read More »The NYT on July 16 reported that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will donate half of his $13.5 billion of personal wealth to various charitable causes. His announcement is tied to a nationwide challenge by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to the mega-rich, asking them to pledge half their fortunes to…
Read More »…U.S. institutions will have to change, an international panel of experts said last week, if they want to retain their edge and help the country in an economy ever more dependent on knowledge and innovation.” The July 2, 2010, issue of “The Chronicle of Higher Education” includes a brief report…
Read More »Yesterday morning seven local bloggers accepted an invitation to go on John McDonough’s “City Life” program. The show runs live daily on LTC – the local access channel – with George Anthes as the regular host. Blogging has been a regular topic for quite awhile – with George and John…
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